Heard of Forest Shade?

Hello all,

Just wanted to know if anyone has heard of or had experience with a lamiante floor brand called Forest Shade? Also....is there a significant quality difference between engineered flooring and laminate in performance? I'm now looking to do a family room (I have pets) and am looking at laminate again or engineered flooring if I am convinced it's worth the extra $$.

Lastly, thanks to everyone over the last month or two in helping my purchase and installation of laminate flooring in one room of my house. It was 300 sqft of lots of closets, hallways, etc....so it took a while but seems to have turned out great. I'll let you know in 6 months if my preparation and installation went as well as I hoped!

 

This appears to be a bamboo laminate flooring product. Shop around and compare quality, warranty, and price with other bamboo products. Most major manufacturers offer good, better, best levels of quality. Purchase the best flooring product your budget will allow to assure that you have a durable floor. Going with a major manufacturer and a higher level of quality tends to offer greater assurance that you have made a good choice and gotten the most bang for your buck.

 

The reason some bamboo can be cheaper is because they grow it it easier locations for accessability, instead of the harder to get higher elevations which make the bamboo grow more slowly, therefore more dense.
and they may also use more of the stalk, and really only the first 4 feet should be used for flooring, the rest used for chopsticks or whatever.
higher end products do tend to be the best harvested bamboo.

 

I'm a little confused here. I thought laminate was a MDF board with a high definition picture of wood on it and a coating on top of that...and that it really contained no real wood. That being the case....how could this be bamboo? I'm familiar with the architectural floors and that some of them are bamboo....but not sure about laminates???

Thanks for any help....

 

Based on internet research for Forest Shade for your post,
Forest Shade tended to come up as a carpet color and I did find posts that referred to Forest Shade as a bamboo product.

Plastic laminate products are a picture of real wood laminated to a variety of substrate materials from plastic, to some 'comblimnation' of layers of fibers, to MDF or other substrate material. The top layer is coated over with protective layer(s).

Wood laminate (engineered wood) has a veneer layer of real wood (any species) over multiple plies of wood as a substrate. The thicker the veneer layer (nothing less than 1/8" recommended) and the more plies the better. Some of the wood veneer products have such a thin veneer layer that the product cannot be refinished (at best 3 times).

Forest Shade, if a manufacturer, is not one within the realm of current research. As stated, the name shows up more often in search engines as a carpet "shade." Where it did show up in wood, it was a bamboo laminate. Perhaps your research would be more definitive.

It is recommended that you shop around and compare apples to apples when making a purchase a flooring product. If you have your heart set on a laminate product, buy the best that your budget will allow. Go with a major manufacturer that offers good, better, best levels of quality, warranty, and price. Buy the best product that your budget will allow.

If shopping for a wood laminate product, depending upon manufacturer, products can be glued, stapled, nailed, or floated. If shopping for ease of installation, many are opting for floated floors. In addition to quality, warranty, and price, DIYers look for ease of installation when it comes to laminate floor products. Read and follow directions carefully.

 

twelvpole,

Thank you for your advice. I have done some research on the net and seen the same type of results you have. I am more familiar with the plastic laminates than the wood laminates and am not sure which is better. I assume, by price-point, that the wood laminates are more durable. Which one would be generally be more water resistant (I have pets....). I know this varies by mfg, etc...but in general is one better with moisture.

Thanks again

 

Wood and water don't mix. If moisture is an issue, then a plastic laminate will be more effective. There are plastic laminate products that have plastic substrates that help protect you from moisture issues common to laminate products. However, urine that penetrates to subfloor where it can be absorbed will still create a urine odor problem. Forum posts tend to reveal that pet owners prefer a solid surface floor covering like sheet vinyl or ceramic tile (grout sealed) for ease of cleanup and prevention of moisture problems.

 

Thanks again......I had read previous threads and saw that the general concensus was for vinyl or tile. In my situation, I'm installing in a family room and the "wood" look seems to be the only real reasonable style to go with aesthetically....so, I'll have to take the bad with the style I choose for this one.